At the recent media event, I was able to try out those two models – more on that later.

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As I began working on my Craftsman media event and V20 cordless powers tools coverage, I was surprised to learn that there are 6 different new Craftsman V20 cordless drills – 4 drill/drivers, and 2 hammer drills.

Craftsman V20 Cordless Drill/Drivers

CMCD720D2 – brushless drill/driver

Made in USA with global materials

0-600/0-2100 RPM

400 UWO

Metal chuck

2.0Ah batteries

CMCD710C2 – brushless drill/driver

0-600/0-1900 RPM

350 UWO

CMCD700C1 – drill/driver

0-350/0-1500 RPM

280 UWO

CMCD701C2 – drill/driver

0-500/0-1800 RPM

320 UWO

At the media event, when Craftsman compared their new drill to the older Sears C3 drill, they talked about the CMCD720 brushless model. At the demo station, that’s the one they had out.

The brushless drill was available for testing, and we asked if we could test out the other one as well, the one that will be sold as part of a $79 kit at Lowes. They didn’t have one. A little while later, I found one at the other end of the room, paired with a 1.3Ah battery pack.

I liked Craftsman’s V20 brushless drill, at least from what I saw – we didn’t have a lot of time to spend with the tools. It sped through the 1/2″ spade bit demo application, and felt comfortable in-hand. This is the USA-made (with global materials) drill/driver that will undoubtedly be Craftsman’s V20 flagship.

But the other one, the basic Craftsman V20 brushed motor drill? It was just okay. With very hard pressure, it stalled out, while the brushless motor plowed onwards. With reasonable drill bit pressure, the brushless drill bested it with faster drilling speeds.

We had a limited time with the drills, but I would consider it fair to say that I handled the best new Craftsman V20 cordless drill, and the entry price point model. The other two drills, a less compact-looking and lower-spec’ed brushless model, and slightly higher spec’ed brushed motor model, fall in between.

The brushless drill I tested was paired with a 2.0Ah battery, and the brushed motor drill was paired with a 1.3ah battery. Maybe the other drills will be bundled with 1.5Ah batteries? I really don’t know yet, and am slightly frustrated that the product listings make no mention of battery capacity, except for the kits that come with 2.0Ah packs.

Craftsman V20 Cordless Hammer Drills

CMCD721D2 – brushless hammer drill

0-600/0-2100 RPM

400 UWO

35,700 BPM

Metal chuck

Made in USA with global materials

CMCD711C2 – hammer drill

0-350/0-1500 RPM

280 UWO

25,500 BPM

There will be 2 hammer drills, one based on the brushless drill, and the other on the lowest spec’ed brushed drill. I would expect for their performance to be in line with what we saw with the brushless and entry point brushed drill/drivers.

To keep things in perspective, I think that Craftsman has the right approach in offering something for everyone.

Consider Dewalt’s offerings. You have the DCD780 brushed drill/driver, a long in the tooth but capable option, the DCD771 entry priced drill/driver that’s bundled with lower capacity battery packs and often found seasonally for $99, the newish DCD777 and DCD778 brushless drills that are also seasonally priced at around $99, and the DCD791, the latest and greatest no-compromise compact brushless drill. There are also brushed and brushless 3-speed drill/drivers, but you won’t find something that powerful from Craftsman, at least not at this time.

Craftsman is launching 4 tiers, which I supposed could be categorized as value, good, better, best, at least until we learn more.

Lastly, check out the packaging that some of the new USA-made Craftsman tools will come in.

I was told that 45% of the new Craftsman products, with respect to dollar amount, are made in the USA, and this number will increase to 85% within three years.

Completely agree. Should just have an entry-level brushed drill and top-tier brushless drill, same as the hammer drills. Super easy to understand, based on the brushed/brushless designation, and of course, price.

After the amount of battery problems I’ve had with the Nextec line I’ll skip. Sears has a lot of work to do to bring back old customers and launching a mediocre line of power tools isn’t going to do it. I’ve had more success at Harbor Freight lately because I expect poor quality when I pay next to nothing but become surprised when it lasts longer than the 1 job. Craftsman used to be in a sweet spot – USA made, not cheapo tools but not pro line pricing and the tools would last for most diy types for generations. Personally I think they should have focused on bringing back the hand tools to USA production first and then worry about making a replacement for the C3 line. Most people who wanted an upgrade probably jumped ship and went with a bigger brand – DeWalt, Milwaukee or Makita and haven’t looked back.

Thanks for that photo Benjamen! It looks like there is enough plastic nubs and whatnot going on that they will not be compatible with the Black+Decker or Porter Cable 20V batteries (or Craftsman Bolt-on 20V). Also it looks like the polarity is switched from the B+D batteries? Thanks a lot SBD! /s

WTH – Can’t they make the batteries the same at least for their lower tiered lines? Plus how many freaking lines do they need? I have an old Stanley FatMax hammer drill which uses the same B&D 4 connector battery. They killed that line in the USA. I have Porter Cable which uses the same 4 connector battery. I also have B&D which uses the same 4 connector battery. They purposely make it so that the batteries won’t fit on each line with the slanted front edge on the B&D, plastic tabs, etc. Are they in the business of selling batteries or tools? Maybe they should focus on making fewer lines (like Honda does cars) and better tools and making the batteries compatible between lines.

I noticed in one of your Instagram pictures that lone C3 drill among the new V20 ones. It’s the cheapest one Sears sells. It’s like forty-something bucks at Sears with charger and battery. I kind of wondered if that’s what SBD was doing. Taking the weakest C3 drill with the weakest C3 battery to prove how much better this V20 line is. I doubt it’s any better than the C3 brushless drill kit that came with the 2.0 XCP battery, even though it probably costs more. This V20 looks really mediocre at best.

Stuart.
Are any of your past Sears/Craftsman contact’s emails still working? Were any of them able to keep their Hoffman Estate jobs I wonder?
Are they still “building” tool chests or much of anything? Or did Stanley buy everything Tool related using the Craftsman name?

I don’t know? Most of my contacts were via their 3rd party PR, or through the OEMs that made the tools.

SBD now owns Waterloo, as part of a separate acquisition. Sears came out with new tool storage last year, but they looked to be made by other OEMs.

I think it was Ben that asked, maybe someone else, and they were told that SBD did not bring anyone over from Sears’ Craftsman team.

Essentially, it looks like SBD forged new arrangements with select OEMs and license partners, while also ramping up capacity to handle in-house designs. I’d say that they just bought the name. Interestingly, I found an abandoned trademark for Versatrack tied to Waterloo, and so it’s uncertain as to whether SBD acquired intellectual property.

I’m bad with names, but when I talked to the one of the top guys asking if any of our old contacts at Craftsman made the move, he said they pretty much just bought the name. The did not get any people.

I also talked to the metal storage guy and I asked about the handle extrusions (specifically why they stuck out on the 3 drawer toolbox). In the process of answering my question, he said they couldn’t use anything from the old Craftsman because the dies were all worn out.

So did they only buy the name? or did they buy the tooling and the intellectual property too? That’s a good question.

I’m surprised they are coming out with that many options, especially right off the hop. It kind of begs the question “why?” but also seems to imply that this will be a full and complete power-tool range – different than say, Porter Cable, which just seems to have the most common key tools.

Fair enough that they’re not comparing it to the C3 1/2” Brushless drill, because it was discontinued, but at the same time still not fair to compare to any dated C3 tools that have seen no updates/new releases in years, of course it”s going to seem king. That’s just my opinion though.

I don’t really think there’s any need for so many different versions of drill drivers and impacts. good and best for the Craftsman crowd would do. When I started reading your article at the beginning(no fault to you) I seen how many different ones were listed and tuned out.

I might take a look at this line depending on what they release, but for now I have a lot of C3 tools and newer XCP batteries so I will not be switching anytime soon.

I also have the C3 1/2″ brushless drill with the 1.5AH XCP batteries and 4AH XCP batteries…to me this thing is a monster, does anything I have needed it to do, including abusing it by mixing whole bags of thinset with it.

I look forward to your full review of the event and your opinions on all of the products Stuart. I’m kind of in the camp that 4 different versions of this is a bit confusing. I’m just as confused when DeWalt does it but that’s just me. Give me 2 lines and I’d be fine, Good = Brushed, Best = USA Brushless. Regardless, I’m all in on the USA Brushless drill & driver. I actually went to Lowe’s this morning to buy both but they didn’t have anything there yet.

price point marketing though. to be fair most DIY use doesn’t need or care about brushless.

my previous neighbor had the brushed dewalt drill and driver set that was the price point sale at lowe’s while I have the brushless models. We were working on his barn/shed and I had my stuff and he had his while we worked. Noticed I was sinking in lag bolts with my driver – he never tried or considered it – so I tossed the bit and socket to him and his ran them in just fine – maybe a little slower. Point is while my batteries lasted longer we both did all the same tasks. For him it wouldn’t have been worth the cost difference – so at the price point dewalt made a sale on a brushed motor kit.

I too thought four levels of tools is at best confusing. I also agree that testing between the two models was definitely skewed. However, is the older C3 model really common in that line? If so then this would be a common comparison point for owners who were looking at new models in the same brand. I am not surprised the lower end models were unimpressive. Kind of expected in low end consumer stuff. I do think they are correct to focus sttention and advetising on the better cordless stuff.

What I believe SBDC is trying to do is position this brand’s power tool image squarely against Ryobi which is its correct market. Of course Ryobi has a big headstart but I think Sears was wise to go to the red colour scheme and stay away from any toy gun image. If there is one thing that hurts Ryobi’s perceived image it is that crazy neon green.

If there is one niche SBDC is really lacking in it is the better consumer market. I went and looked at Porter-Cable’s web site. Their catalogue is actually pretty big. Now I am not saying this is the old P-C. However, it was SBDCs attmpt to compete in the wonky pro-sumer market but the only place I ever saw them was Lowe’s and even then it was a bare minimum of cordles stuff. No jigsaws, routers, oe other tools I remember anyway.

So if they do Craftsman right, and I think the colour scheme is a big draw(Hey! See my bright redness!) , then they can compete in TTI/Ryobi/Home Depot world and get the sales up. As Stuart says, consumers are great but the immediate customers of these manufacturers are the retailers and distributors. You have to give them a reason to invest millions into inventory and supply chains. It is why I would push this brand to the hilt on Amazon as well as the lone big box store that carries their current offering.

I don’t recall sbd doing anything like this when they bought pc and introduced them under their name. I’m not sure what to think about it because everyone knows that all sbd did was program the injection mold machine or whatever the hell they use to craftsman instead of porter cable. Rebranding without redesign is pretty cheesy and rather cheap and it shows the lack of r&d&d&$ that was put into this weak attempt to reintroduce craftsman under a new owner. The lack of vision and direction is blatantly obvious and sbd jumped the gun. When sbd bought craftsman, I think the only thing that people cared about was the hand tools being brought back %100 to the USA. They could have waited for years before manufacturing craftsman power tools as long as the hand tools were in full scale USA production. I guarantee that if sbd had one tool that was one hundred percent made in the USA, even if it were a set of nail punches , would have had a bigger impact than any of the power tools at the media event. Nobody gives a shit about porter cable anymore and sbd is the reason for that. Nobody gives a shit about rebranded porter cable tools either. They are already heading in the wrong direction with craftsman and I don’t think “first impression” is the correct wording on this topic being that porter cable’s power tools have been out for quite a while. The new color scheme looks pretty cool. That’s about it for a first impression.

My sentiments exactly. From the point the brand was bought by SBD, every detail forthcoming related to CM has been underpinned by this lack of coherence. “Confusion,” as so many have already remarked, of this order begins at the top. Perfect example from the get-go are the terms of the sale. Not selling at Sears yet Sears can, including ROYALTY FREE for fifteen years. WAT!? Additionally, I refuse to believe there wasn’t one meeting where one attendee didn’t say “perhaps populating every single possible price point with product isn’t the best strategy” or a whole contingency of influencing voices expressing a need for more focus on “best in class” offerings, hand/shop tools and those items within the product space responsible for establishing the brand name.
Another opportunity exists in the statement at the end of this article:

“I was told that 45% of the new Craftsman products, with respect to dollar amount, are made in the USA, and this number will increase to 85% within three years.”

This is huge and holds much weight with so many Americans that not capitalizing on the fact makes one wonder. Not whether the author was told, or not. Not even the credibility of the source, but about the competency of those individuals in the know and tasked with marketing the brand. Sure, it ain’t 100%. But 45, and later 85, is better than zero.
Gonna take wat I can’t imagine is a monumentally more concerted effort sprouted from the upper levels to have any chance of returning the CM name to its former glory. I had high hopes for their success, yet my doubts continue to grow with each news blip.

I think SBD knows what to do and how to do it better than you and I combined. You are disappointed that they didn’t spend more on R&d yet how much more could you do when you already have the expertise and manufacturing capabilities all figured out? You can’t reinvent the wheel. They could of spent millions designing it from ground up to only reach the same conclusion. Do you see a great difference between products that were r&d’d by completely different companies? Nope. The specs on most power tools are extremely similar to others in their class although made by competitors.

It’s mainly an attempt to get a lot of Craftsman-branded stuff out to market before the very lucrative holiday shopping season and rake in a whole lot of cash and make some money off the investment sooner rather than later. You can be sure that a ton of this stuff will be bought by people that know the Craftsman name and care little to nothing about country of origin, just that famous name and lifetime warranty.

Also worth mentioning – although the Craftsman Lifetime Warranty has never applied to power tools, there are LOTS of people who still buy anything and everything with a Craftsman logo on it thinking it’s got a lifetime warranty. Hardly a day goes by in a Sears store without someone, somewhere, bringing in some old drill or other power tool they got at a garage sale for 50 cents thinking they would get a brand new one for free with the lifetime warranty. I mention this because you can be sure that SBD will sell millions of these drills and other power tools to such people, who will not notice the “1 Year Limited Warranty” on the box and think only of the Craftsman logo and lifetime warranty.

I don’t think Lowe’s or Ace or any of these places is really prepared for the consequences of what SBD is doing, even if they are getting instructions to refer anything they don’t have on hand to SBD and the 1-800 number. It’s going to be quite the hassle in short order when Lowe’s sells a ton of the SBD Craftsman stuff and it’s going to be an even worse revolving door of old tools coming in and being exchanged for new ones than Sears ever was.

Shotgun approach, offer 4 and continue selling whichever 2 sell the best.
Unfortunately it just seems late in the game to bother making or buying Craftsman cordless tools, besides battery support for existing owners.

Sucks that the “flagship” brushless model has a metal chuck that just has the knurling for grip. In my experience, those are hard to grab and grip, compared to the ones with a rubber grip attached. Rubber does wear, but my experience is plastic/rubber gripped chucks can last longer than the drill does – or at least until the battery is dead and obsolete. Metal chucks with knurling can also wear enough to get pretty smooth – to where grip is even worse than with the knurling.

I’m a bit shocked by some of the negativity and I might have contributed. OK so these are “clones”, Color copies of etc a PC or low tier Dewalt tool. OMG they should have put millions in R and D and made new . . .

Seriously – think for a moment. OH it’s a Copy of PC drill – well that makes is rather good doesn’t it. FOR THE PRICE POINT. I mean of the 99 dollar normal price kit of a drill driver battery pack and charger in a box stable of products – it’s high on the list.

Nothing wrong with any of that – they took their already good product and made in in Red and put a new branding scheme on it. OH and now there’s a cheaper entry priced drill driver product that is made in the USA (compared to the nearest Yellow device with similar badge) So again – not too shabby in that regard. Will I buy one – probably not if only because I’m already into Yellow right now and I like buying bare tools for the battery stable I already have. But if I was starting over – I looked hard at getting PC back years ago – I’d seriously consider the craftsman product.

And I’ll tell you I sure as hell wouldn’t have 10 years ago or even 5. All this nextec this and that – can’t believe anyone actually bought them. Other than high discounted prices. This looks like a good thing over all.

Now I don’t know it will happen but I’d love to see a cheaper usa made proto like hand tool hit a shelf near me. but a guy can hope right.

There are more then enough tool brands out there now. Craftsmen is a non starter with me, right next to HF. Not going to be on my list anytime soon. Might be for first time home owner to think about maybe. Long way to go other wise I’m afraid

The negativity is rightfully earned well deserved by sbd either way you look at it. I honestly don’t think that sbd would bring production back here if they were thrown out of China and banned from manufacturing anywhere else other than the US. They would rather close shop than sacrifice profits for American workers who take pride in their craft and expect more than a dollar an hour or even worse, forced to work for a dollar an hour because of non existent labor laws and they know that they couldn’t get away with that shit here. Anyways back to porter cable, I understand that there’s no reason to reinvent the wheel. And I guess it makes sense being that porter cable’s rep is past the point of repair. Just bury the brand completely and sweep it under the rug as if nothing ever happened. New color scheme. New brand name with an old brand name. Nobody will ever ask what happened to porter cable because sbd made sure that they made them as irrelevant as possible and they certainly did a fine job of making that happen didn’t they? Porter cable reminds me of the same thing Lampert is doing with sears. Invest just enough to keep it alive until it can’t be purged anymore and if anyone asks we’ll just shrug our shoulders and say we don’t know. To my recollection, wasn’t every brand that they own manufactured in the US until the Great Sellout? So why pledge to only bring craftsman back to the US? Why not porter cable, dewalt, black & decker, Stanley, and the rest of them? I guess they’re not special enough, so they’ll just have to sit in the corner and get left out. Politicians make pledges and we all know how well they make good on those pledges. I’m not holding my breath for it to happen. Sbd has certainly rolled the dice on the sec investigating Lampert and putting him in jail and the downward spiral that sears can’t get out of which is a pretty safe bet and is probably why they agreed to the 15 year thing and sears can still make craftsman tools under their name. Lampert isn’t going to invest any money in their brand of craftsman tools any time soon, so it’s likely that we won’t see anything new from sears craftsman in the near or distant future & he’s smart enough to know that sears bears no competition in the retail tool market. People don’t go to sears to buy tools anymore. Sbd made a smart decision because they know it’s just a matter of time when the shit is going to hit the fan with Lampert and sears.

So the the optimist in me would very much appreciate the notion that Stanley Black and Decker has created some items made here since the acquisition of several brands (including Craftsman) and for that I eternally grateful. Sincerely so, as there is nothing more I love to see than my fellow Americans employed.

However, pragmatically speaking ToolOfTheTrade is stating the truth unfortunately. Stanley Black and Decker has a once in a lifetime opportunity to revamp the Craftsman brand and create hundreds, if not thousands of jobs for Americans that want to work. Now yes, the shareholders do not want to lose money, nor does the CEO. There is a responsibility of the consumer if they truly care about domestic manufacturing to support this the best the are able to.

Fact is, America is over regulated and the job killing/anti compete are what makes making products overseas so desirable. Yes some regulations make sense, such as prohibiting child labor and certain workplace “safety” procedures. Yet how does any company truly compete against countries that have almost no regulations, forbids any non approved inspection and the wage is one dollar at hour/day?

Tool is correct in that almost every brand owned prior to and or during was made stateside at some point in history. Because of anti dumping laws in the United States, China doesn’t have such laws and this is a cost advantage for them. Not just China, yet any country that isn’t as regulated. If hypothetically this is 5% cheaper to make the product in China and you don’t have to pay for health insurance, vacation, 401K, safety regulations and pay your employees next to nothing, these are also cost advantages.

Wouldn’t surprise me if Lampert ends up in some legal hot water, as no doubt he has made some people not happy with him. Only time will tell, yet if said unhappy folks decide to pursue legal action, this could either take years to settle or there might be a backdoor deal. Lampert is a multi billionaire, no doubt he some of the best lawyers money could buy and has friends in “high places” as well.

If Sears lasts another decade, I’d genuinely be surprised. Amazon, Home Depot, Lowes, Ace and others are beating them in sales. Lampert knows this, so perhaps he is merely bidding time long enough to formulate a plan on how to leave with as much money in his pocket before Sears collapses. Investors won’t be happy, yet they won’t go bankrupt themselves.

Sears is already dead, just a couple of more shovels full of dirt to be thrown in. Years of poor management. Their power tools have long been targeted to the DIY market. Not even remotely comparable to Makita et al. The promise of more American jobs is pretty hollow when followed by the “with globally sourced components.” BTW the Chinese can make good stuff too but the importers prefer the buy cheap model. As long as consumers support that model it will exist.
You can also tell a con when some names say they have 20V batteries and others say 18V, both have the same # of cells that generate the same voltage per cell! For you guys with obsolete battery packs there are places that will open them up and put new cells in them.

There’s nothing in spam or moderation. If for some reason the filter didn’t like your comment, you would have gotten a 404 error when trying to submit, or it would have been sent to spam. There’s nothing from you in spam. If there were 3+ links or you mistyped your email address, I would have seen it in moderation.

I don’t remove or block comments unless they’re highly inappropriately political, and even then I only step in if it derails the discussion.

Well Jamie, to a certain extent, I don’t blame anyone for being bitter about Sears. Sears once was a magnificent company that sold some of the best tools a hard working average Joe for reasonable prices. Often a large majority of these items were made in USA from companies that took pride in their workers. Sears also hired knowledge, experienced and professional men and women that had worked in the fields to sell their products. Often, these people took immense pride in their job and I knew several.

Those days are LONG over sadly. Now Sears will hire just about anyone, including teenagers who know nothing about the products they sell or even care. Forget about a clean professional image, I’ve been to several Sears with so called “employees” that have tattoo’s, piercings and have rough vernacular.

As for Stanley Black and Decker, who knows what will truly happen. Hopefully they’ll bring back some jobs, yet no matter what, chances are these will only be made in USA with global materials. Which would be better than nothing with power tools, yet I hope at least some of the hand tools will have raw American components.

Stuart, I see a lot of comments that seem to come from an authority on the matter. I work for ” red vest”, and am curious as to what will happen to PC. I am wishing the best for SBD and Craftsman. I realize that seeing Craftsman wrapped around PC guts makes some folks mad, but, don’t you think that SBD have done analysis on the components to ensure this is a success. The Brushless tools seem to be specifications wise similar to DeWalt level tools. 2 Tier options seem about right for Craftsman. These offerings will mature soon enough. I have M12 in gross amounts, as well as DeWalt 20v in similar amounts, so I am not connected to this launch in a material fashion. I have had many PC tools and they are not bad tools, so if they are an analog to the first wave, then so be it! If I don’t need it, then I will wait to see what happens next. Either way, I wish them luck!

Although surprised at first, I’ve realized that it makes perfect sense for SBD to base many of the new Craftsman tools on existing SBD products. Why wouldn’t SBD lean on existing experience and tried-and-true designs?

There are small changes to a lot of tools, drawing from “lessons learned” since the inspiring products were released.

With SBD working to increase capacity, now’s a good time to leverage existing tooling and know-how if and when possible, rather than trying anything too drastically new.

The only thing that could possibly make me interested in buying them is if they had some significant difference from or superiority to other cordless tools. Otherwise why buy into what is currently a very limited tool platform? Just being an alternative to Ridgid or Kobalt isn’t going to pull me away from the tool platforms I already have.

Maybe make some quality tools that are also extremely small or lightweight? Maybe make the most powerful cordless tools? Perhaps the most high tech? Just making another mediocre batch of the same thing everyone else is already making doesn’t entice me.

A big question for me is: are the SBD V20 batteries plug compatible with the Sears 20V batteries? I.E. Can I buy a SBC V20 and use it on a Sears Craftsman 20V tool and vice versa???? Nobody seems to be asking this….

fred on The Best Hook and Pick Set?: “Moody also make spring hooks and sets: https://www.amazon.com/Threaded-Spring-Tool-Kit-Light/dp/B0026GI62A/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=B0026GI62A&qid=1558784803&s=industrial&sr=1-1”